An Automotive News report – about the oft-rumored return of the Volkswagen Scirocco – dug up an interesting nugget of information. Diesel sales accounted for 23 percent of Volkswagen sales in the first quarter of 2012, and future product plans are going to help give oil-burners a boost.

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A study by Polk found that the majority of hybrid car buyers don’t end up purchasing another one – when Toyota Prius buyers are excluded, the number of repeat hybrid customers is as low as 22 percent.

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Carglass is one of the most lucrative sectors of the sometimes obscenely lucrative auto service business. Their eyes glaze over when purveyors of pristine panes talk about a new trend in car design: Glass roofs. (Read More…)

Did I really buy that car? Ohhh....

A base 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 160k miles was coming to the auction block. Zip ties were holding up the passenger mirror. Options were minimal, and the various dings and dents did the trade-in no favors. It’s the type of vehicle that usually does no more than $2500 during most times of the year.

But with April comes tax season, and with tax season comes prices that hold only the lightest resemblance to reality.

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Wait, straight, unrusted XJ-Ss get crushed? Yes, indeed, I see solid examples of Jaguar’s V12 statusmobile at self-service junkyards all the time. This car listed at $39,700 when new (nearly 80 grand in 2012 dollars), but couldn’t even fetch above scrap value at an auction today. (Read More…)

U.S. president Obama was not allowed drive the Volt down the Hamtramck assembly line. His colleague in Turkmenistan does not suffer such tight restrictions and was allowed to win Turkmenistan’s first car race. (Read More…)

Rumors of Audi starting U.S. production have been floating around for a while. Tennesseans in Chattanooga had hoped  Audi would move in with Volkswagen. These hopes have been dashed over the weekend. Germany’s Spiegel reports that Audi will get its own plant in Mexico. (Read More…)

I understand the need for a luxury car maker to create a super car. It spilled into my drawing books at CCS. But I love Lincolns. To wit: a stand up grille (modeled after the Bugatti EB110), covered headlights (Continental Mark III) , a power dome hood and an-ever-so-slight Continental kit that blended into a spoiler (like the final RX-7).  Jokes about my Panther Love on TTAC is fine, but I was far too scared to encourage the stereotypes in design school. I showed absolutely nobody my super car Lincoln, and I never will…it, among other aborted design studies, went in the trash when I left Detroit.

But Lexus? No, they actually think they can play in this space. At least long enough to make a statement: since I never did, I do applaud their effort. Even if I don’t especially like it.

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Start cutting into the wrong car and you’re likely to get hate mail from brand purists. When Jesse James’ old Monster Garage show turned a fairly rare 1971 Chevy El Camino SS into a Figure 8 race car, the producers wouldn’t tell the seller what their plans were for fear of queering the deal. Now Figure 8, being a step above demo derby, is admittedly not exactly a concours, but Chevy cowboy Cadillacs are not quite as rare as hens’ teeth. There were 44,606 El Caminos produced in 1971. I remember something guitar dealer and trader George Gruhn said to me about $25,000 Fender Strats and $50,000 Gibson Les Pauls (paraphrased), “Remember, they were built in factories, on assembly lines, by Mexican American immigrant women, not by artisans like Cremona violins.” (Read More…)

GM’s new partner PSA increasingly reminds of pre-carmageddon Ford: Europe’s number 2 finds itself short on cash and way too long on capacity. Other than Ford that had mortgaged everything, PSA takes more radical steps. After putting is own headquarters building up for sale, PSA is ready to sign over parts of its Aulnay car plant to renters. (Read More…)

The Fox Platform was one of Ford’s biggest postwar success stories; a (relatively) modern, (sort of) lightweight unibody design that could be used for everything from economy commuters to rubber-burning factory hot rods to plush luxury sedans. Sure, Ford kept the Fox on life-support a few years too many, but that’s how they roll in Detroit. We often forget about the Fox Capri, since it looked even nearly identical to its Mustang sibling (and because everyone thinks of the earlier Euro-Ford-based Capri when they hear the name), so it took me a second to realize that this inhabitant of a Northern California self-service yard wasn’t a Mustang. (Read More…)

Having braved the New York Auto Show with only minor injuries, and after consulting with the calendar, we think we should give you and us a rest for the weekend.

We wish you all happy Passover, an eggstatic Easter, we wish a beautiful Day of Beauty to our friends in Armenia, we wish a successful Woman’s Day to our friends in Mozambique (and to Jack Baruth), we wish a fragrant Flowers Day to our friends in Japan, a good Chakri day to my girlfriends in Thailand, and a great ASPCA day to all our pets in America.

We shall return on Monday (Day of Valor in the Philippines.)

The outrageous indifference, mixed with distate enthusiasm shown by TTACers for our Chicago Auto Show Video led us to think that it would be a good idea to do one for the New York Auto Show. Unfortunately, Vodka McBigbra’s dental emergency forced me to bounce out of the show halfway through. The video crew was left with an absolute mishmash of first-take cynicism and random Asians wandering through the shots. (Read More…)

Brazil provides the first letter of BRIC. Without the BRICs, we’d have tombstones for carmakers. How are we keeping the global auto business alive, down here in the Southern Cone? Follow me as I give you the highlights. (Read More…)